Ziziphus jujuba is thus the correct scientific name for this species. In 2006, a proposal was made to suppress the name Ziziphus zizyphus in favor of Ziziphus jujuba, and this proposal was accepted in 2011. This combination was made by Hermann Karsten in 1882.

However, because of Miller's slightly different spelling, the combination of the earlier species name (from Linnaeus) with the new genus, Ziziphus zizyphus, is not a tautonym, and was therefore permitted as a botanical name. For the species name, he used a different name, as tautonyms (repetition of exactly the same name in the genus and species) are not permitted in botanical naming. Philip Miller, in his Gardener's Dictionary, considered that the jujube and its relatives were sufficiently distinct from Rhamnus to be placed in a separate genus (as it had already been by the pre-Linnaean author Tournefort in 1700), and in the 1768 edition he gave it the name Ziziphus jujuba (using Tournefort's spelling for the genus name). It was first named in the binomial system by Carl Linnaeus as Rhamnus zizyphus, in Species Plantarum (1753). The binomial name has a curious nomenclatural history, due to a combination of botanical naming regulations, and variations in spelling. This name is not related to jojoba, which is a loan from Spanish jojoba, itself borrowed from hohohwi, the name of that plant in a Native American language.

A descendant of the Latin word into a Romance language, which may have been French jujube or medieval Latin jujuba, in turn gave rise to the common English jujube. This was borrowed into Classical Latin as zizyphum (used for the fruit) and zizyphus (the tree). The ultimate source of the name is Ancient Greek О¶ОЇО¶П…П†ОїОЅ zГzyphon. Terpenoids such as colubrinic acid and alphitolic acid were found in the fruits. ДЇlavinoids found in the fruits include Kaempferol 3-O-rutinoside, Quercetine 3-O-robinobioside, Quercetine 3-O-rutinoside. Leaves contain saponin and Ziziphin, which suppresses the ability to perceive sweet taste. There is a single hard kernel, similar to an olive pit, containing two seeds. The fruit is an edible oval drupe 1.5вЂ“3В cm ( 5вЃ„ 8вЂ“ 1 + 1вЃ„ 8В in) deep when immature it is smooth-green, with the consistency and taste of an apple with lower acidity, maturing brown to purplish-black, and eventually wrinkled, looking like a small date. The flowers are small, 5 millimetres ( 1вЃ„ 4В in) wide, with five inconspicuous yellowish-green petals. The leaves are shiny-green, ovate-acute, 2вЂ“7 centimetres ( 3вЃ„ 4вЂ“ 2 + 3вЃ„ 4 inches) long and 1вЂ“3В cm ( 3вЃ„ 8вЂ“ 1 + 1вЃ„ 8В in) wide, with three conspicuous veins at the base, and a finely toothed margin.

It is a small deciduous tree or shrub reaching a height of 5вЂ“12 metres (16вЂ“39 feet), usually with thorny branches.

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